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Monday, November 05, 2012

"Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?...This Country Doesn’t Have To Be In The Shape That It Is In"

The following video is from the 1980 Presidential Debate, held one week before Jimmy Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan, in what was one of the most important elections of the 20th Century. Some who are voting tomorrow weren't alive to hear these words. I was 11 years old and remember sitting up to watch this debate. This closing statement was what cemented Carter's defeat.

Keep these words in mind as you vote tomorrow. They are just as, or even more important tomorrow as they were when they were said 32 years ago.

Next Tuesday is Election Day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls, will stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don’t agree, if you don’t think that this course that we’ve been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have.

This country doesn’t have to be in the shape that it is in. We do not have to go on sharing in scarcity with the country getting worse off, with unemployment growing. We talk about the unemployment lines. If all of the unemployed today were in a single line allowing two feet for each of them, that line would reach from New York City to Los Angeles, California. All of this can be cured and all of it can be solved. I have not had the experience the President has had in holding that office, but I think in being Governor of California, the most populous state in the Union – if it were a nation, it would be the seventh-ranking economic power in the world – I, too, had some lonely moments and decisions to make.

I know that the economic program that I have proposed for this nation in the next few years can resolve many of the problems that trouble us today. I know because we did it there. We cut the cost – the increased cost of government – in half over the eight years. We returned $5.7 billion in tax rebates, credits and cuts to our people. We, as I have said earlier, fell below the national average in inflation when we did that. And I know that we did give back authority and autonomy to the people.

I would like to have a crusade today, and I would like to lead that crusade with your help. And it would be one to take Government off the backs of the great people of this country, and turn you loose again to do those things that I know you can do so well, because you did them and made this country great. Thank you.

Tomorrow's election isn't about just two men, two parties, or about you and I. It is about the future of this nation. Are we willing to stand up for the principles we were founded upon? Are we still willing to be that "Shining City Upon a Hill" as a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world? Are we still willing to believe that it is free people, who choose their own destiny, can accomplish anything and build their own dreams and destinies?

I know the "Are You Better Off" argument is a good one, and another reason why the above video clip is important, but I wanted to stress that one line, because it is the crux of where we are at today.

This country doesn’t have to be in the shape that it is in. We do not have to go on sharing in scarcity with the country getting worse off.....

Why? Because too many people, especially media pundits, are trying to make you and I believe that the last four years and all that has followed in Obama's rule (high unemployment, underemployment, less take home pay, higher gas prices, higher health insurance cost, higher debt, less freedom, less opportunity, et al) is the "new normal"....and that we must get used to it.

Along with that comes a nation that has become more polarized by race, gender, sexual orientation, political beliefs, religion...a far cry from what the Great Healer Obama promised in 2008 when he talked of "healing the political divide". Those lofty words have given way four years later to the real Obama...an angry soft despot who talks to his followers about voting out of "revenge." How his political advisor, the mean-faced Valerie Jarret, vows "payback" to political opponents and to allies like Israel, whom they blow off while making secret negotiations with a terrorist, rogue nation like Iran.

Is this the "transformed" America you want to live in? Where we have to do with less opportunity, less freedom, and "share in scarcity," but also where those who disagree with the current regime are seen as bigger enemies than Islamic terrorists attacked this nation on the same day 11 years apart, and who would like to wipe out the State of Israel.

That's not the America I want to live in, nor do I want to see passed down to the next generation.

Tomorrow is the day when we can change the course where we have been on. Obama must be defeated, but voting Third Party or staying home apathetic will only keep Obama's Reign of Thuggery intact for four more years. If you are still undecided, but love this nation and worried about the road we've been on, I ask you to join me in voting for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It is the only way to defeat Obama and put America back on course. To do that, also, don't forget that we need to elect conservatives to the Senate as well, and end the obstructionism of "Dingy" Harry Reid. That, as well as staying engaged and fighting for commonsense conservatism while they are in office, will ensure that we can fundamentally return America to it's founding principles.

This isn't just any election. It is one I regard as a national emergency. As Mark Levin would say, it's a battle of Liberty vs. Tyranny.

Our future and that of the next generation, depends on what we do tomorrow.